Just as soon as I’m done reading Possible Side Effects. It’s fabulous. It’s hilarious. I can’t put it down. If your library doesn’t have Augusten Burroughs on hand, just go buy the books. It’s worth it.
Here’s a passage that got me giggling and kept me giggling for quite some time after. Here, Augusten is on a book promotion trip to London and he has one free day to spend doing whatever he likes. So naturally, he spends the day holed up in his hotel room watching British television, only taking breaks to run out to buy junk food.
I went out for more candy bars, forgetting all about the traffic being reversed here, so I was nearly hit by a Royal Mail truck as I crossed the street. What a Royal Mail truck was doing careening through the narrow streets of Soho at eight o’clock at night is a mystery. Shouldn’t their mail truck drivers be home by five in the evening, drunk, depressed, and homicidal, like ours?
Shaken by the near miss, I walked into the twenty-four hour store and saw something I’d missed before. Something that instantly made both my ears become hot with need….
Slow Roasted Lamb and Mint Potato Crisps.
It can’t be, I thought.
But then, it was. And there were other flavors, too. Char-Grilled Steak and Peppercorn Sauce, Oven Roasted Chicken and Thyme.
My God, why aren’t these in America? Why did we ever split with Britian in the first place?
I began to suffer. I could buy a bag, but I knew what would happen. I would take them back to the room and within the space of four chips, I would become addicted. And then in four days, I would be three thousand miles away from more.
We have BBQ and Sour Cream and Onion and, wildly, Salt and Vinegar. We have “No Salt,” as though that’s an acceptable flavor.
And these loopy, gin-soaked Brits are whooping it up with chips in a Noah’s Ark of animal flavors.
It made me sick with envy is what it did. (p. 19)
Again, I implore you. Go get these books and read them. You will not be disappointed. And pictures of the shabby interior of my new house are coming. As soon as I’m done reading.
Will have to pick up one of his books soon…. There’s nothing better than getting lost in a wonderful book, my all-time favorite pastime.
P.S. I actually had The Mists of Avalon in my hands not too long ago. I wait-listed it at my tiny, rural library and it finally came in. And then I didn’t have time to read it and had to return it. I was so close….
Oh, you’ve got to actually buy The Mists of Avalon. It’s an essential book to own.
What a hoot! I won’t get to the library until tomorrow. Problem is I can see already that I will be ignoring my family.